Priest Rupert Lammert from Neu Isenburg tells us how the contact to Father Allam was made and how the aid programme started in April 2007:
“Father Allam, the ‘priestly help’ from India.”
It happened in summer 1994.A family from Weinheim, Germany was invited to an ordination to the priesterhood in Guntur / India by Missio Aachen. This family had financed a few years of education for a young man who wanted to become a priest. In the meantime, the couple was to old for such a long journey. Therefore the priest invited the young man from India to Germany.
Guntur’s bishop, Dr. Gali Bali, agreed and one day the young priest from India arrived in Frankfurt. He had been a guest in Weinheim for six weeks.
With a few English and German words it became possible to talk to each other and to form friendships. As it was time for going home and as many people came to say goodbye, Weinheim’s priest, Johannes Bardong said: “Allam, we are going to visit you next year.”
That’s how our aid programme, many people are astonished about, started.
In January 1996 two priests and a couple came to Guntur, India and in November 1996 Bishop Dr. Gali Bali visited friends in Germany for the first time. In spring 1997 the first group of people from Germany visited Andra Pradesh and the bishop.
Together we thought about possibilities to help the poorest people, which aren’t part of the caste system. We planned and built a colony in the parish of Bapatla, where Father Allam worked. Sixty houses made of stone were produced for people, that had been living in clay or reed huts.
New projects came into being. One of it was the hosting of Indian priests in the diocese Speyer, Germany for a few years. The diocese agreed and the first “guest worker” was Father Allam from Guntur.
His first job as a chaplain was in Lindenberg, Lambrecht, Weidenthal, Neidenfels, Frankeneck und Frankenstein. He became friends with Priest Franz Neumer, who helped him with his work and with spiritual welfare in Germany.
At this time the thought of godparenthood and sponsorship arose. Father Allam and his friends wanted to help poor children in order to enable them to go to school, to have food and a home. All this is possible for one child if people donate 120 € each year.
You can read more about godparenthood and sponsorship if you click: Sponsorship
